The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
As is known, a fuel cell generates electricity by an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel cell may receive a chemical reactant from the outside and continuously generate electricity even without a separate charging process.
The fuel cell may be formed by disposing separators (separating plates) at both sides of a membrane electrode assembly (MEA) with the MEA interposed therebetween. A plurality of sheets of the fuel cell may be continuously arranged to be formed as a fuel cell stack.
The MEA that is a core component of the fuel cell forms a hydrogen electrode and an air electrode at both sides based on an electrolyte membrane, through which hydrogen ions move, as electrode layers. Further, the MEA includes a sub gasket which protects the electrode layer and the electrolyte membrane and secures assembling of the fuel cell.
In a process of manufacturing the MEA, an electrode sheet is manufactured by a decal method, in which an electrolyte membrane wound in a roll type is unwound, and electrode layers are continuously transferred to both surfaces of the electrolyte membrane while being spaced apart from both surfaces of the electrolyte membrane by a predetermined interval (about 150 mm pitch).
Then, a MEA sheet is manufactured by a roll-to-roll method, in which the electrode sheet wound in the roll type is unwound and transferred, sub gaskets in the roll type are unwound and are positioned on both surfaces of the electrode sheet, and the sub gaskets are bonded to both surfaces of the electrode sheet while making the sub gaskets pass through a hot roller, as a post process.
Further, a fuel cell is manufactured by bonding the MEA and a gas diffusion layer (GDL) to each other at a high temperature and alternately laminating the bonded structure with the separating plate.
In the meantime, during the process of bonding the gasket to a boundary area of the electrode layer and the electrolyte membrane in the state where the electrode layer is formed on the electrolyte membrane, the electrolyte membrane may be exposed in a reaction area, and general performance of the fuel cell may be degraded.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the present disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.